The Deity of Christ

For those of you who are still wondering how orthodox Christianity came to the conclusion that Jesus is God (because you were too lazy, uh I mean busy to do your own research) consider these. They are not exhaustive by any means, but not too shabby being off the top of my head. I will let you find the references if you need them.

Jesus called himself, "I am." Doesn't mean much to us, but the Jews definitely knew what he was trying to say, that's why they wanted to stone him for blasphemy.

Jesus also never refused anyone's worship. For example, when "Doubting" Thomas responded to seeing Jesus' wounds, he said, "My Lord and My God." Jesus did not correct him, which would have been normal for all servants of God.

All the other heavenly beings (the good ones, anyway) always refused when someone tried to worship them, saying stuff like, "Do not do it, I am a servant just like you."

The Father was pleased with Jesus, which he would not have been if he were truly blaspheming.

Read your Bible! Know what you believe and why. It will make a difference in your life.

What It Looked Like in My Head...

A couple of weeks ago, I asked the congregation to shout, "Jesus" in answer to some questions I had during my sermon. This is what it looked like in my head when I planned that:



Actually I knew TCCBC would be much more reserved. Still went well nonetheless.

"If I'm on the devil's hitlist, who do I have by my side?" JESUS!

Amen!

Just Do It!

Sometimes we are hesitant to move forward because we want a cue from God. We want God to send us a miraculous Outlook Calendar event that reads: "Thursday noon, Take Bobby to Lunch and Share Gospel."

Sometimes God works that way, but most of the time, He doesn't.

The majority of "walking in faith" is the actual walking part. James 2:20 says, "But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?"

Consider the hemorrhaging woman in Matthew 9...

A distressed woman who had had an incurable blood hemorrhage for twelve years secretly approached Jesus as he was mingling with a crowd of followers. Her thought was that Jesus would be able to heal her. But instead of asking to be healed as many others were doing in that time, she snuck up behind him to touch the hem of his garment. She thought to herself, "If I only touch His garment, I will get well." (Matt 9:21b)

Yes, she believed that she could be healed by touching the hem of Jesus garment (which, incidentally, is a pretty bold faith!) and Jesus indeed exhorted her by saying, "Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well." (italics mine).

But it was her actions that brought her to that point.

Is there something that you believe God wants you to do? Is there some way you need to give of your time, your energy, yourself? Is there someone God would like you to minister to? If you have even an inkling of it, I challenge you to JUST DO IT! and see if God doesn't turn your faithful action into a miracle.

I will do the same!

Press on.

American Idol

Christians across the nation were pleasantly surprised on Wednesday when the hit TV reality series, American Idol, concluded their show with a rendition of the the praise song, "Shout to the Lord."

In this day and age, that a secular show with such wide appeal would feature a Christian anthem in it's closing act is no short of miraculous. On top of the fact that American Idol regularly draws 30 million + viewers on a weekly basis, they selected Shout to the Lord to be sung on their mid-season gala show, "Idol Gives Back", their celebrity-studded charity telethon which earned over $60 million in just a few nights. The "Idol Gives Back" episode likely drew millions more viewers than their normal numbers.

One peculiarity that many observers noticed was that Idol replaced the name "Jesus" in the opening verse of the song with "shepherd." To their credit, when they encored the performance on Thursday night's show (that's right! they sang it TWICE in one week! Amazing!), they rightly sang the verse by addressing the praise song to "my Jesus, my savior."

Here is Thursday night's performance with "Jesus":


I may be a little cynical most days, so I doubt myself when I make this speculation, but I wonder if there is a certain element in today's culture that is tired of the removal of God from all thing public and are simply ready for revival.

Pray that it is so!

Here is Wednesday' (inferior) performance with the word "shepherd":

First Post!

Today is what is Good Friday. At first glance, Jesus' horrific death on the cross might not seem like such a good thing, but when we realize that he did it for us, how can we not look upon this day thankfully? We could not save ourselves from our own sins so he came down and took care of them for us - for free. What a magnificent love that he has for us! Thank you, Jesus, you are the coolest!

FYI: This Sunday we have a combined Chinese and English service at 11:15 AM to celebrate Easter. Lunch will be provided following the service.

Who says there's no such thing as a free lunch?